A measurement apparatus (refer to, e.g., Patent Documents 1 and 2) called a blood glucose self-measurement apparatus is known as an apparatus capable of measuring a blood glucose level in home and at a workplace, the apparatus being used by setting a sensor cartridge containing a plurality of disposal sensors for measuring the blood glucose level.
These measurement apparatuses can be roughly classified into a measurement apparatus used by setting a sensor whenever measuring the blood glucose level (which will hereinafter be termed a non sensor built-in type apparatus), and a measurement apparatus housing a plurality of sensors inside, one intra-apparatus sensor moving to a measurement position upon performing a predetermined operation when measuring (which will hereinafter be termed a sensor built-in type apparatus).
The non sensor built-in type apparatus generally uses the sensor taking a rectangular shape and provided with an electrode at one end in a longitudinal direction thereof (which will hereinafter be referred to as a tail end) and with a blood introduction port at the other end (which will hereinafter be referred to as a leading end). An apparatus enclosure of the non sensor built-in type apparatus is formed with a sensor insertion port for inserting the sensor. The non sensor built-in type apparatus is configured so that the leading end of the sensor comes to a state of protruding approximately 2 cm from the apparatus enclosure upon inserting the tail end of the sensor into the sensor insertion port and securing the sensor in order to facilitate an operation of bringing the blood into contact with a blood introduction port (which will hereinafter be termed a droplet applying operation).
The general sensor built-in type apparatus is configured so that the leading end of the sensor taken out from a sensor housing unit (which is normally a sensor cartridge) within the apparatus protrudes approximately 1-2 cm from the apparatus enclosure in order to facilitate the droplet applying operation.
Known also is the sensor built-in type apparatus (e.g., Patent Document 3) using a removable multi-region sensor taking such a shape that a plurality of sensors is strung together. However, this sensor built-in type apparatus is also configured so that a part (one sensor) of the removable multi-region sensor protrudes from the apparatus enclosure.
The sensor housed in the sensor cartridge for the measurement apparatus is deteriorated due to a water content (humidity) as the case may be. It is therefore proposed that a desiccant is put into the sensor cartridge, and the sensor cartridge or the measurement apparatus incorporates a hermetic closing mechanism for hermetically closing the sensor cartridge when not using the measurement apparatus (refer to, e.g., Patent documents 4-6).